Zoë inched a little closer. “Dammit, Drew. What happened?”
He clenched his jaws. For a moment she thought he would ignore her, then he said, “I accompanied Motor-T, transportation, to a camp north of Baghdad. They were short fuel, food and medical supplies. We were about three clicks from our destination—”
“Clicks?” she interrupted.
“Three thousand yards. That’s when we were ambushed.”
Zoë felt her blood thicken. She had never let herself believe Drew was in any danger. Hell, she hadn’t let herself think at all. If she was focused on the next race, the next jump, she didn’t have to worry about anything but the finish line or landing.
“The first RPG exploded in front of our truck.” He must have realized she had no idea what an RPG was because he added, “Rocket propelled grenade. Shrapnel from the blast blew out our windshield.” His gaze suddenly became perplexed. His expression grew distant, almost as if he were a million miles away from her. “We were locked in the field of fire. Bullets ricocheted as they struck the truck, others burying into it, including into our driver.” Again, he grew silent. He clutched his hands together, his elbows resting on his thighs. His voice shook as he began to speak again. “The truck swerved. I grabbed the wheel.” He rapidly shook his head. His stare pinned on the floor. “We were surrounded—no way out. Screams.” He paused. She wanted to reach out to him, but he blurted, “Cries for help. God, I was never so glad to hear the whirling blades of the Apache ’copter overhead. The gunship opened up a spray of bullets. There was crossfire. I felt a searing slice of metal burn into my chest. I couldn’t breathe. The next thing I knew I was in the hospital.”
The tendons and muscles in his neck bulged, tightened. She could see he fought for control. He swallowed hard before meeting her gaze. “Thoughts of you were the only thing that pulled me through the months lying in that bed. I had memorized your touch, the soft, musky scent of your skin, and your kiss. But each time I woke in the darkness you weren’t there.”
No, the silent word rang in her head. She fought to restrain the emotion begging to be released. She wouldn’t feel guilty. He had been the one to walk away. Still, she couldn’t stop the pang to her heart. They had both been alone. She drew her legs beneath her, folded her arms around her to stop from reaching for him.
“I wrote,” he said as if that explained everything. His leaving—rejection.
“I know,” she replied dryly.
“Why, Zoë?” He laid a hand on her thigh. She felt the warmth of his touch as though it were a flame heating her blood. “Why didn’t you read them?”
It was her turn to let regret surface in her strangled voice. “I couldn’t.” She prayed for strength, prayed that this moment would come quickly to an end. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say, leaving old wounds gaping wide.
The harrumph he released sent a chill through her. “I wish you had. I wanted to come home, baby. Marry you. When I received no response I didn’t think there was anything to come home to. I sure as hell got the message that you had moved on.”
A knot of emptiness formed in Zoë’s throat. She couldn’t breathe—couldn’t speak. What had she done? No, wait. How could she trust him? He had abandoned her, chosen a job over her—left her.
He brushed his fingers through his hair again. “After I was released from the hospital, returned to the States, I thought maybe…”
“Maybe we could pick up where we left off?” Zoë pulled her legs from beneath her, setting her feet on the floor. He drew his hand back into his lap. She steeled her shoulders. If he ran once before what would stop him from doing it again? “I’m not the same person you left behind.” She couldn’t contain her bitterness as she rose. “I’m sure you’ve changed in these past three years too. Fact is you might not like the person I’ve become.” Who could blame him? Her innocence was gone. Instead she stood before him a cynical woman, one who would rather be alone than set herself up for another failed relationship.
“Couldn’t we try? Start anew?” he asked.
Chapter Thirteen
Drew pushed to his feet and closed the distance between them. The second the back of his hand smoothed across Zoë’s cheek her eyelids drifted downward. She was velvety soft. He caressed her gently, fighting back the desire to jerk her into his arms and devour her. “The connection is still there, baby,” he whispered, pressing his lips to each of her eyelids, tasting the salty tears she denied release. She tried so hard to be tough, but he knew the woman he fell in love with was still there. “You can’t deny it.” He nibbled on her earlobe and she melted in his arms, her body sagging forward to get closer to him. With his fingertips, he traced her jawline, stroking a path down her slender neck, along the lacy ridge of her teddy to the hollow between her breasts.
Her mouth parted upon a gasp. “Drew. Please…” Her desperate plea drifted away as her head lolled back. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sweet swells of her breasts rising and falling before him. He had to taste her—had to know that she still wanted him.
His cock was rock-hard, begging to be set free from its confinement in his jeans. He leaned forward, capturing a silk-covered nipple. Zoë whimpered the soft and needy sound. He tongued the rigid peak, scraping his teeth across the sensitive flesh. “You’re trembling,” he moaned, before latching on again and sucking the tip deeper into his mouth. When she cupped his head, held him to her, he smiled.
Slowly, he slid the straps of her nightie down her shoulders. The material slipped further, baring the breast he had left unattended. He cupped its weight in his hand, caressing the engorged nub with his thumb. Excitement surged inside him when she guided his head to her bare nipple, crying out as he took it into his wet mouth.
“Clothes,” she breathed. Her half-shuttered eyes were dark with desire. “Take them off. I need to feel you.”
Drew ignored her request, knowing that anticipation would build—her need grow—if he didn’t give in to her demand. Instead, he released his hold, hooked his thumbs into the elastic of her panties and dragged them slowly down her legs. He didn’t have to wait for her to step out of them—she did so with haste. The sweet scent of woman rose to meet him. “Are you wet for me?” he asked, taking a deep breath. His mouth watered to taste her. He couldn’t wait to have her writhing beneath his assault as she climaxed. Blood rushed to his groin. His testicles hardened, pulsing as if they had a heartbeat of their own.
“Yes. God. Yes. Your T-shirt,” Zoë groaned, her fingers moving to the hem. He caught her palms in his, gathering them together and drawing them above her head so he could cuff her wrists in one of his large hands. “No. I need—” She pressed her body against his, rubbing up and down. “Need you now.”
He wedged a knee between her legs and let the rough cotton of his jeans slide over her moist pussy. She rode him wantonly, capturing him in her heated gaze, never looking away from his. His arousal soared. His heartbeat raced. Damn. The woman she had become was friggin’ hot. Yet he had to remember that she had recently been in an accident. He couldn’t take her fast and hard like his body was screaming for.
Drew placed his mouth next to her ear and murmured, “Come for me, baby.”
From deep within, a cry of ecstasy tore from her. “Drew!” She thrashed against his leg, trying to jerk her wrists free. He loved the way she screamed his name, loved how uninhibited she was, riding him to enhance every sensation. He watched her intense expression, knew the moment that she exploded—rode the crest—and then began to decline, because her face softened with a sated sigh of relief. There was no pretending, only bare honesty in her need. What she wanted, she took without shame.
As her climax ebbed, he released her wrists and she relaxed against him, circling her arms around his waist. Her heartbeat raced, thudding against his chest. Her breathing was still labored. She nuzzled her face into his neck, placing tender kisses against his skin to send goose bumps across his arms.
The ache in his groin firmed. He needed
to part her thighs and bury himself deep inside her. “Let me make love to you?” he asked. He had taken too much from her already. If this was going to work, she had to be willing, had to want him as much as he needed her.
Zoë didn’t speak, only nodded her acceptance.
He stepped away from her, reaching for the hem of his T-shirt and jerking it over his head. Her gaze swept across his chest. She licked her lips, looking like a sexy, sleek cat savoring the meal before her. His cock hardened, lengthening as she dipped her fingers into his waistband and dragged him to her. With a deftness he hadn’t known she possessed, she unbuttoned his jeans and had the zipper released in no time. His swollen erection pushed into her hands.
“No shorts?” She grinned, wrapping her slender fingers around his shaft. She pumped the hand closest to his crown, while the other one made little twisting movements, her fingers firming and then releasing. The sensation nearly blew the head off his control. Conflicting emotions assailed him. He hated that she was so skilled, but pleaded inwardly she wouldn’t stop.
“Damn. Zoë,” he groaned, rocking his hips. “Baby, stop or that’ll be all there is of this night.”
The giggle she released sounded like the same mischievous ones he had heard a million times before he left three years ago. Instead of stopping, she bent forward and flicked her wet tongue over the small slit oozing pre-cum.
Drew nearly jumped out of her grasp. Every muscle in his body tightened. That familiar drawing sensation just before climaxing shot down his cock. His toes curled as he grabbed her hands, stilling them. It took a moment for him to calm the fire raging inside him. “You little minx,” he hissed, when he was able to breathe again.
Laughter brightened her tired eyes, reminding him once again what she had gone through today. She tried to stroke him, but he wouldn’t allow it. When that failed, she leaned forward and laved his nipple, making him jump once again. He couldn’t believe how sensitive his body was to her ministrations. Even the hair on his arms stood at attention as she nibbled, and then pulled the nub into her mouth.
“Fuck, woman. You’re going to be the death of me,” he grumbled beneath a grin, as he watched her tease him, sucking, licking and biting. He bent his knees, dipping as he thrust, driving his cock between her thighs. In slow, long strokes, he caressed his erection across her hot folds.
“Mmmm…” she hummed. “That feels good.”
Two can play this game. He brushed his chest against her hardened nipples. Grasping the cheeks of her ass, he spread and kneaded them, until she began to push against his hips.
“Take me to bed, Drew,” she whispered.
He didn’t wait for a second invitation. With a swoop of his arm beneath the bend of her knees, he lifted her into his arms. Eyelids shuttered, her arms folded around his neck. She exhaled softly, nestling her head against his shoulder.
With a flick of his finger, he turned off the lights. Carefully he made his way toward the bedroom. Moonlight beamed through the curtains, draping her in shadows as he laid her down and then climbed in beside her.
“I know you won’t believe this, Zoë, but I love you,” he said, before covering her body with his.
Zoë couldn’t believe her ears. Had Drew just confessed his love? Her mind was a mass of confusion. Elation. Anxiety. Fear. She wanted to believe him but something inside her warred against dropping her barriers, letting him back into her life. He was the only person who could destroy her.
“You’re thinking too hard.” He smoothed the wrinkles from her forehead. “I know you have no reason to believe me.” With a featherlight touch, he kissed her. “Let me show you.”
Without another word, he moved down her length, parting her legs to sit between them. Starting at her knees he made long, sweeping strokes with his fingertips to the crease where her thighs and hips met. He laced his fingers through her pubic hairs, but he never touched the part of her aching to be caressed. It was sweet torture. An engine roared, its headlights shining momentarily into the trailer so that she could see the intensity on Drew’s face, and then just as quickly darkness closed over him once more. When he moved to the inside of her legs, closer to her pussy, she raised her hips invitingly.
“Touch me,” she begged shamelessly. It was no use. When it came to Drew she had no willpower. She wanted him—right here—right now.
“Patience, baby.” His voice was deep and sexy, making her want him even more. A wet fingertip circling her areola made her nipples sting, draw so tightly they hurt, but it was a sweet pain. A ray of sensation shot to the apex of her thighs, eliciting a moan from her lips. She arched her back, pressing her breast into his touch, but he didn’t tweak her nub nor fondle it between his fingers. Instead, he raised her hands above her head then trailed a path down the inside of her arms, staying away from the bruise on her rib cage. She yanked her arms back to her chest, laughing as chills skittered across her skin.
“It sounds so good to hear you laugh,” he said, covering her body with his. He wedged her legs apart with a knee, settled his hips against hers so that the tip of his cock was perched at her entrance. He parted her swollen folds and pushed between them. It was a magnificent feeling being stretched and filled. This was what she’d missed, dreamed about every night. She grasped his biceps, holding on, spreading her thighs even wider. He didn’t stop until he was seated deep inside. Then he bent and captured her lips.
His kiss was a tender caress. Their mouths fit together like they were made for one another—perfect. Languidly, he slid his tongue from corner to corner, nibbling on her bottom lip, before dipping inside to taste. He flicked his tongue against hers playfully. She smiled against his lips.
“What?” he muttered.
“I love the way you kiss,” Zoë admitted, caught in the moment. She was rewarded with another titillating caress. His lips were soft but firm. He coaxed, teased, but in the end took what he wanted, deepening the kiss and ratcheting her arousal up two more notches.
In long, tantalizing strokes, his cock mimicked his tongue gliding in and out of her hot, moist sex. The magic of his touch forced her apprehension to the back of her mind. This was a moment to savor. She wouldn’t think. Instead, Zoë locked her ankles around his waist. The position allowed for better penetration and if he had any thoughts of stopping he’d have to fight her for release. While his hands smoothed over her body, awakening every nerve so that every inch of her felt as if it were ablaze, she held on tight. Soft, needy cries bordering on desperation seeped from between her parted lips. She wanted this second to last forever—she wanted Drew forever.
As the muscles in her womb began to firm, contract, she fought to prolong the inevitable. She tried to focus on her breathing, tried to find her center point within that allowed control, but it was useless. The flush of heat that always consumed her as her climax approached, hit like a tidal wave. “No,” she whimpered, mentally clawing to hang on to the precipice she dangled from.
Drew’s reaction was to thrust hard, driving deeper before he rotated his hips, striking the back of her cervix to make her back arch and come off the bed. Over and over the walls of her pussy tightened and then released to drive her wild. Relentlessly, the contractions went on and on. Moaning, tears misting her eyes, she bowed beneath him, reveling in every ounce of sensation racing throughout her.
“Zoë.” Her name was a heated cry as Drew suddenly grew tense in her embrace. His hips slammed against the cradle of her hips. His elbows locked, raising him so that their chests didn’t touch. He jerked several times, as he tossed back his head, and then stilled. “Fuck,” he ground out from clenched teeth. “Oh. God…” His arms shook almost as if he fought them to keep from falling on her. A profound groan tore from somewhere deep inside him as he climaxed. His explosive release bathed the walls of her womb with warmth, before he carefully collapsed atop her.
In the quiet of the night, Zoë held him, swearing she would never let him go, even though she knew it was a lie. They were both runners. The question w
as, who would leave first?
Drew was boneless. Every ounce of energy spent in what was the most sublime moment he had ever experienced. He had finally admitted his love, bared his soul and made love to the woman of his heart. His only hope was that she believed him. He had heard the skepticism in her tone, but as he held her and felt her let go he could have sworn she had given herself entirely to him. But then that’s what he wanted to believe.
“You okay?” he asked rolling off her, settling on his side and drawing her into his embrace before she could think to move away.
“Yes.” Zoë nuzzled his skin, nipping him, before she buried her face in the curve of his shoulder and neck. Her hand was warm as she smoothed it across his chest, stopping at the remnants of his gunshot wound. An uncomfortable silence followed. “Why’d you leave, Drew?” If he had any doubt that his leaving had wounded her, the sorrow in her voice was all the evidence he needed.
“I was a coward.” Shame and regret washed over him. They had lost so much from his actions. “You wanted forever after and that scared the shit out of me.”
She stiffened in his arms, trying to pull out of his hold. But she wasn’t going anywhere. He needed to make her understand.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just I felt myself becoming lost in you.” She trembled at his words, from anger or distress he didn’t know. “I couldn’t control my thoughts and feelings for you. At the time I thought the distance between us would be healthy—straighten out my head.”
She released a strangled whimper. “Let me go,” she muttered.
“Not this time, Zoë.” His gut twisted with the knowledge that he was causing her so much anguish. But he couldn’t stop now. One after another the words tumbled out of his mouth. “Don’t you see? I was wrong.” He held her tighter—desperately. “I couldn’t sleep—eat. The loneliness was unbearable. I begged you to take me back, but you never responded to my letters. When I finally accepted you didn’t want me in your life I gave up. I took some of the most dangerous assignments, but it never erased the feel of your skin or the taste of your kiss from my memory. The only thing it got me was nearly killed. When I was released from the hospital and returned to the States, Josh’s was my first stop. I came looking for you.”
Sand Angel Page 11
